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Friday, April 25, 2014

Should we be preparing our kids to work at Google?

I recently read an article that discussed the hiring mindset at Google. Read the whole article here. Obviously Google is a widely known company and you'd be hard pressed to find someone who didn't know of Google or didn't use Google on a daily basis.The Vice President of People Operations at Google, Laszlo Bock, has come to the conclusion that 'G.P.A.’s are worthless as a criteria for hiring, and test scores are worthless. ... We found that they don’t predict anything.'People in the education world have to be cringing like finger nails on a chalkboard after reading that. All those students who are so good at playing the game of school must be throwing up their hands in disagreement. Universities across the globe are turning up their noses and saying, 'well maybe that's true for other universities' graduates, but not ours.'Reading further along in the article Laszlo emphasizes the five most important qualities he and the hiring teams at Google look for when interviewing possible candidates:1). Cognitive ability (your ability to learn) trumps IQ2). Leadership3). Humility4). Ownership5). ExpertiseObviously I understand that not everyone can work at Google and not everyone wants to work at Google, but is there something we can learn from the hiring practices at Google?Is there something we can learn about the focus we put on grades and the focus we put on ranking and achievement over others?What if we started to plan our instruction and plan our school culture around these 'Google' qualities?What if we treated every kid as if they were the next possible employee at Google?

Agora: Collaborative Classroom

Disclaimer

"Life of an Educator" is the personal blog of Justin Tarte. Here I will share my thoughts on education in an effort to improve schools by helping Educators to reflect upon their current practices and beliefs. The opinions expressed here represent my own and may or may not represent those of my current employer.